cruelty.

Behavior that causes suffering or shows indifference to another's pain.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• deliberate cruelty
• casual cruelty

On the page

The story's cruelty lies in its ordinary acts of exclusion.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Countable or uncountable by context; countable singular cruelty; plural cruelties. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.